Paint Misbehavin'

Have you been to look for paint recently? Last weekend I went to the local hardware store to do some research for a friend. Two hours later, armed with paint chips and several “helpful guides”, I went home to look (again) at the miniature pieces of colorful information laid out before me. As I got out my pencil and notepad, I reminisced about the easy, lazy days of Red, Yellow and Blue.

In their efforts to help, Paint manufacturers have given us far too many choices, making it so overwhelming that many of us buckle with fear; after anxious nights, looking at various shades of taupe, we finally end up with walls that look suspiciously like antique white.

Honestly, I never go to the paint store to choose a color. It’s too much, it does my head in. I am lucky in that the colors that I choose are usually inspirational, happy accidents, that I find along the way. I will photograph something, rip it out of a magazine or borrow it from someones house, anything so that I can copy and recreate that color in my own home.

If I need to paint, and I have not found something that I love, then I will go through magazines or the Internet, looking at homes to see what others have done. Seeing a photograph of a completed wall is far more helpful than imagining a 2 x 3 inch pigment covering your 15 x 20 foot living room. Often, these beautifully decorated rooms provide the name, number and manufacturer of the paint, which can help a great deal if you decide to use it. If the details are not there, just take the page and match it as best you can (or use the color matching machine available in most of the larger stores).

Paint is fun; explore your options, but don’t become lost in the process…….

Thanks to: www.atticmag.com/…/paint-swatches-rug-style/ for the paint swatch photograph.